Gas Optimization Audit: Gauntlet

Gas Optimization Audit, titled Gauntlet, targeted Protocol Gauntlet with a TVL of $1.639 billion, spanning both Ethereum and numerous Layer 2s. Prepared by a Senior DeFi Security Researcher and Smart-Contract Auditor, the audit assessed gas efficiency through a review with a security impact assessment on September 22, 2026.

Key findings identified inflated gas costs averaging 15-30% over industry benchmarks for actions like deposits, withdrawals, rebalancing, and price updates. Redundant storage writes, unbounded loops, inefficient data packing, repeated IERC20 transfers, and excessive storage writes were among the primary culprits.

Estimated annual gas savings from these optimizations amounted to approximately $2.1 million on Ethereum and $0.8 million on L2s, assuming constant transaction volumes. The audit not only focused on cost reduction but also uncovered potential attack vectors such as out-of-gas denial-of-service, re-entrancy, state inconsistency, front-running, gas-griefing, and event spam.

Recommendations prioritized immediate implementation, with high priority focusing on bounded or batched loops to mitigate out-of-gas denial-of-service risks. Caching external calls, employing unchecked arithmetic, and reducing redundant storage writes were also highlighted as critical steps. These changes collectively promise significant gas savings while enhancing the protocol's security landscape.